It's that time of year again folks. Time to reflect, be with your loved ones, and perhaps give some gifts and eat some nice meals together. Instead of offering sales and doorbuster promos and other madness like that, I like to do things a bit differently around the holiday shopping season. This year, I decided to go with a giving theme.

Between today and Sunday Dec 4th, 25% all purchases made on my site or Etsy (patterns, patches, zines, PDFs) will go towards your choice from a selection of worthy causes:

Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.

The Sato Project is dedicated to rescuing abused and abandoned dogs from Puerto Rico.

Now + There is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating impactful public art projects in Greater Boston (where I currently reside).

I'm excited to use my skills and your support to contribute to causes I feel strongly about, as I have seen many others do (especially recently).

I've also whipped up some fun handmade goodies to accompany your holiday gifts!

I did a great deal of printmaking in college and have always loved carving woodblocks, stamps and the like. I've seen so many people getting into block printing lately. I was finally able to make some time to get back into it.

I started with the stamps and decided to create some simple patches using fabric scraps from my studio. I also thought it would be fun to hand paint a few of the muslin versions (I tried it on the color fabric too and it didn't work as well, so I kept those simple).

Each building also represents something to me, a symbol of an idea. I feel like the serve as affirmations for this crazy day and age, things to remind ourselves to work towards. The Geodesic Dome is Utopia, the Cabin is Contemplation, the Saltbox is Adaptation and the A-Frame is Ingenuity.

There are all kinds of ways to use these little guys, but here's a few suggestions:

The events this weekend in VA were heavy (visual pun intended). The state of my country and how fractured it has become (and in many ways has always been) weighs on me every day. We come from a complicated history, a variegated landscape of people and beliefs and tremendous fear and the way forward is unclear.
I don't often use Instagram as a soapbox, but I feel it's my responsibility to speak up on public platforms like this as the stakes continue to get higher.
So, here's a break in my usual posts to simply share my intention to be active, supportive and aware. We have to continue to stand up against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, and encourage others to do the same.

Knitting at the pond!

Today's garden harvest 👍

Last day of capsule wardrobe class and super proud of my students! ✨❤️✂️(Check out their projects in my stories!) Here's my last outfit: a Cabin and A-Frame combo! #blueprintsaframe #blueprintscabin #capsulewardrobe